1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates to providing a graphical representation of files downloaded over a network and, in particular, a system for accessing, viewing, and displaying data from the files by manipulating the graphical representation of the files.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internet web browsers, such as the Netscape Communicator.TM. and Microsoft Corporation's Internet Explorerm, include a "bookmark" feature that allows users to save the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address of web pages they download. By selecting the "bookmark" feature in the user interface, the user can view a list of "bookmarked" web pages. The "bookmark" list displays a name for the "bookmarked" page. Also maintained, but not displayed, is the URL address of the page on the Internet. When a user selects one of the listed bookmarks, the browser goes on-line to access the data maintained at that URL for the selected bookmark entry. In the Microsoft Explorer.TM., the "Favorites" selectable item displays bookmarked web pages. This bookmark feature does not automatically display the data from a previously displayed page, but merely provides the URL for the page.
FIG. 1 illustrates a computer display screen 2 displaying the user interface 4 generated with the Netscape Communicator.TM. web browser. The selection of the "Bookmarks" 6 selectable item displays a bookmark window 8 that lists "bookmarked" web pages. By selecting one of these bookmark entries, the web browser goes on-line to download the data from the URL address for the selected bookmark. For instance, if the user selects the "Patent" item in the bookmark 8 window, the browser will go to the URL address for the "Patent" bookmark, e.g., the International Business Machines, Corporation's (IBM) patent server at http://www.patents.ibm.com/.
FIG. 2 illustrates the display of a "Go" window 10 displayed upon selection of the "Go" file item 12 from the menu in the user interface 4 of FIG. 1. The "Go" window 10 displays descriptive titles of the last nine web pages a user has visited. These pages are stored in a cache of the computer. Upon selection of an item from the "Go" window 10, the computer loads the cached web page into the browser interface 4 for display. The user may also use the selectable items "Back" 14 and "Forward" 16 to scroll backwards or forwards through a limited number of the most recent accessed web pages.
The "bookmark" feature requires that the user go on-line to download the page. The bookmark feature would needlessly consume network resources if the user only wanted to view the contents of the bookmarked page and did not have to view the most recent content maintained at the on-line URL location. The "Back" 14, "Forward" 16, and "Go" 12 features are also limited because the user can only scroll to a limited set of the most recent pages stored locally. Thus, the above web browser features are limited in that they do not provide the user immediate access to a preferred set of previously accessed pages.